Those who have come from Pz's blog, aka THAT thread

[Bella Fortuna]

Thanks, Badger. Nice post.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

When it's all forgotten, when the next hare is released "over there", when nobody remembers what this was all about, Ratz will still be here. So fuck 'em.

[Badger3k]

By the by, I think having good rote memorization skills is pretty crucial to learning. But then, I always enjoyed the challenge of memorization.

I'm sure it was more crucial before Google. I absolutely love that I can outsource my rote memorization to the internet in the same way I can outsource rote calculation to a calculator and rote computation to a computer.

I sometimes wonder if Google is making us dumb. I used to be able to amaze my friends with the stuff I could pull out the back of my head. Now people don't even try (including me.) They just look it up.

I wonder what will happen when we're all hooked on to the Interweb with our minds. Cuz that's gonna happen.

Not sure... But maybe it's just old age... as a younger man (and boy) I had almost perfect recall of stuff read/seen once. Now, my memory still is said to be above average, but I feel like a cripple, because I know stuff I should remember, yet don't... This very afternoon I talked with somebody about Weird Tales. He told me he read one story by my favorite writer (Robert E Howard), and I attributed it to the wrong collection of Weird Tales stories translated in French (which is where I guess he found it, Kull stories are not particularly easy to find in French)... but I had to go back to my shelves and actually look at the volumes to check what story was where.

Don't forget that as we get older, we have a hell of a lot more that we have learned and remember - we have more to sort through to try to remember things, and we have more recent memories overlaying older ones. Plus, some of the stuff we try to remember has not been used for a while, so it gets on the back burner and become harder to remember.

I'm not sure of memorization, but I've heard that keeping your mind busy is one way to help offset problems with aging - I think they were going more for brain teasers/puzzles - things that make you think and access more. Perhaps trivia games are similar - using the memory can reinforce the pathways, so I don't see why not. It's been a bit since I've looked into the neuroscience, so I may be out of date and wrong, though.

[Badger3k]

Hi PZ!

[Badger3k]

....And he's gone.

ETA - nope, now he's back on the list at the bottom. I guess I need to look at the forum for posts. Might be nice to see if any real conversation is occurring, rather than commandments from on high.

[Twoflower]

I really hope he looks at the entire site and not just one or two threads. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge us before getting to know who we are.

[Badger3k]

I really hope he looks at the entire site and not just one or two threads. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge us before getting to know who we are.

From his comments on the "PZ is a racist" thread, I doubt it. From watching him degenerate over the last year+, he has a narrative, and he sticks to it, no matter what the facts are. I can guess that he'll write another post, probably condemning this place as a sewer (his "cockroaches" line from the other thread). Somehow, I don't see him going back on that, if only because his commenters would die. Look at what happened when he criticized them over PinkBunnyGate. He got eaten up until he gave in and satisfied them. A pit of zombies would be less scary, or a shark tank. It still is sad, though.

[DaveD]

Such a lack of attention to detail must surely be a handicap for a scientist.

[Wumbologist]

Such a lack of attention to detail must surely be a handicap for a scientist.

Not big on the facts either, I sure hope that enormous ego doesn't transcend into his work life too.

[Cormac]

So on one side we have smug jerks who hate the idea of being progressive, but on the other, on my side, we’re quite ready to cut the troglodytes loose, and we’re quite ready to move on without them.

If this is in any way directed towards Rationalia - let me be one of many to tell it to you, PZ - you have no idea what you are talking about. Same goes for being smug and wanting a cookie for being atheistic.

Seriously PZ - you haven't the faintest understanding of the culture of this site. That's not a crime - but it would be decent if you either tried to learn a bit more, or just quit while you're ahead and stop talking bollocks about users of this forum collectively or individually. Suffice to say, Pappa's crass joke was not representative either of Pappa's personality or of the culture of this site.

This is a small, laid-back, lighthearted, closely-knit community, mostly of mutual friends, mostly of nice, smart, witty people - many of whom know each other well in real life. Conversation is usually either intelligent and thoughtful, silly and absurd, or both. We have had two marriages grow out of this forum, and a few other (transatlantic) relationships emerge. And that includes Rachel's relationship with Pappa, whom she married in February of this year - and for whom she left California to come and live in Wales.

We've also seen the deaths of two long-standing members. Their usernames are mentioned on our banner: "In memory of Tigger & Mr P". And it ain't just words either: I went to Tigger's funeral, in particular. He was a lover and confidant of mine, and one of the best friends I made, and was privileged to know. I cried real tears at his funeral. And when I returned to my hotel room in Durham in the UK, I spent over an hour on the phone with another person from the forum who couldn't make it to the funeral because their car broke down on the motorway.

And yes, I know Pappa, and I've met his kids, and he's a great dad, for what it's worth to anyone out there.

That's how 'real' this forum is... We're not just usernames, avatars, and pixels on a screen. We're not (all) anonymous figmets. We're mostly real people, who really know each other, and we're mostly actually quite nice. And we're not misogynists, or smug, or anything else. We're just fucking people, without a set agenda, who happen to be mostly atheists, and who like to discuss things here.

And I hope that at least some of that seeps through, and people stop caricaturing us grotesquely on the basis of Pappa's recent screw-up, and all the second and third-hand accounts of what has been happening, and how this site is supposedly run.

And for what it's worth - we probably have a greater presence of women here than you have at Pharyngula - many of whom felt quite comfortable in challenging Pappa about the content of his badly considered 'joke' - for which Pappa has now apologised sincerely.

We're not smug, we're not sexists, and we don't want cookies for being atheists - we're just people, and I think I speak for most when I say that all we really want is for other people to say a few more accurate things about us, and/or just fuck off and leave us alone.

Cheers.

H. If I were clever enough, and in a bit more control of my emotions around this, I would hope to have written something a fraction of how well you have written this. Thank you. It captures what I feel.

[Robert_S]

In case anyone forgot again, PZ Myers is a member here. He has posted within the past hour.

Rip his ideas to shreds, but cut the personal digs out.

[Cormac]

Where is the post Rob? I can't find it.

[DaveD]

Where is the post Rob? I can't find it.

http://www.rationalia.com/forum/viewtop ... 3#p1226853

[Cormac]

Where is the post Rob? I can't find it.

http://www.rationalia.com/forum/viewtop ... 3#p1226853

Thx Dave

[Robert_S]

DaveD. That avatar pic...